MONTEREY PARK, Calif. — Biola Swim & Dive took its rested swimmers and its best swimsuits down the freeway to East Los Angeles College on Friday to begin the annual Collegiate Winter Invite hosted by the University of La Verne.

"We had an electric day one at our mid-season invite," said Head Coach Nathan Harding. "We've been emphasizing giving God glory through the way they compete, and they embraced that tonight. Overall, a really fun and exciting start to the weekend."

The highlights of the day both came in the relays. The first was the men's 200-freestyle relay breaking the school record. This came in the very first event of the evening's finals. 

The quartet of Nathan Griffin, Alejandro Marchesini, Ronan Watts and Benjamin Smith turned in a time of 1:23.44 to best the school record of 1:23.53 set back in 2021. The time was good enough for fourth-best in the group.

"The men's 200-freestyle relay broke one of our oldest school records, and we finally had all four legs split 20-point, which is a huge step for our sprint group," said Harding.

The second standout relay effort was actually Biola's only event win for the day. The women's A-relay team put together a standout effort in the final swim of the evening for the 400-medley relay. The Eagles out-touched their foes from The Master's University with a winning time of 3:50.95.

The men got another top-4 finish when Josh Peace put together a 4:37.35 in the 500-freestyle. That was a 15-second improvement from his season-opening 500 back at Lansing Pool. Biola had three men place in the top-10 in that event as Samuel Slezak placed ninth and Noah Hall 10th.

Allison Yancey was the first show-stopping swim for the women. The junior finished fifth in the women's 200-IM with a time of 2:06.96. Morgan Carles (8th - 2:08.99) also finished top-10 for BU. Those times marked a personal best for Carles and a season best for Yancey.

Griffin had the men's top performance in a competitive 50-freestyle. The senior went :20.90 to set his own personal-best, topping his time from the 2025 PCSC Championships by about two-tenths. He finished 12th in the event.

On the women's 50 freestyle, it was Phoebe Munholland who stole the show. She was right near her personal-best time with a sixth-place mark of :23.82.

"Prelims started a little flat, but the team woke up for finals and delivered strong swims and solid season bests," said Harding. "The group clearly found their rhythm, and we're set up well for Day two and Day three with hundreds of stroke and the IM events coming."

Diving also got underway on Friday. For the men, they had the finals in the three-meter, where Caleb Pook took fifth with a 215.40. The women's side had their one-meter finals, where Biola was led by Eliana Ko who finished ninth with a 163.70. Peyton Nelson also made her competitive debut for Biola with a 116.85 to finish 15th.

After one day of swimming, Biola's men sit fifth overall (out of 12 teams) with 242 points, and the women's team finds its spot in third (of 15) with 291 points.